Talking Points from the Bruins' win over the Flames. . .
GOLD STAR: Jake DeBrusk stepped up and showed once again why he’s an important cog to the health and overall well-being of the Bruins offense. It was DeBrusk that stepped up and scored a pair of goals in the Thursday night win and ended up with the third-period game-winner while firing a backhanded bid past Calgary goaltender Mike Smith. It’s no coincidence that DeBrusk finds his offense and the B’s overall offense puts up a big number with the six overall goals scored, as the young winger has been a key second source of B’s goal-scoring for a couple of years now. In all it was a standout night with the two goals and a plus-1 rating, six shots on net, seven overall shot attempts and three blocked shots in 16:04 of ice time.
BLACK EYE: Michael Frolik actually had a pretty good game with a shorthanded goal and a plus-2 rating for the night, but he’s going to have a hard time living down a second period sequence with B’s defenseman Kevan Miller. Miller leveled Matthew Tkachuk into the Calgary bench with a big hit, and then Frolik actually tried to step up and challenge the rugged Bruins defenseman. The problem: When Miller waggled his gloves like he was going to drop them, Frolik made a U-turn for the Calgary bench and meekly showed zero interest in tangling with Miller. So for all the good that Frolik did earlier in the game, he looked like a giant 98-pound weakling heading back to the Flames bench.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins already had a lead when the third period started, so they were admittedly in control of the game. But a late penalty in the second period for Elias Lindholm interfering with Sean Kuraly gave the B’s nearly a full power play to kick things off in the final 20 minutes of the game. The Bruins did some great things with that PP and ran something of a set play where Torey Krug fired a puck off the end boards, and David Pastrnak raced behind the Calgary defenders for the carom off the boards. He was able to collect the puck and slide a backhanded bid past Mike Smith for the fourth goal of the game, and a score that made a statement that the B’s were there to win the third period. They did just that.
HONORABLE MENTION: You’ve got to give it to Johnny Gaudreau. The guy was all over the ice for the Calgary Flames, and ended up scoring a bad angle short side goal when he planted a puck off the back of Jaroslav Halak on its way to the net. But it wasn’t just that play as Gaudreau finished with six shots on net, 12 shot attempts and had a couple of points in his 20:14 of ice time. Luckily for the Bruins, Jaroslav Halak was able to stop Gaudreau on the breakaway chances that probably registered as his best scoring chances of the game. So whatever the Bruins planned to slow him down defensively clearly didn’t work as he was making plays all over the ice. But the B’s won anyway and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
BY THE NUMBERS: 9 – The number of shorthanded goals allowed by the Bruins this season, which leads the entire NHL and has already matched the number of shorties that the B’s gave up all of last season. Clearly, they need to work on it.
Boston Bruins
Find the latest Boston Bruins news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Boston.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “I feel good about [the first half], to be honest with you. Right now we’re halfway through the year, game 41, and we’re at 50 points. So, if we replicate the first half we’re at 100 points. We’d like to think we’ll get better, simply because a lot of the guys that were out that are key contributors are now healthy.” –Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy, on the B’s able to still put together a good first half despite the injuries and adversity.
Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Celtics easily on your device.